arsenic and old lace ...

Knit in Stylecraft dk bamboo and cotton mix, which feel gorgeous on the needles

The pattern is gorgeous too and can be found on Subversive Femme's blog here.

love me some deep ribbing

 Fifth Avenue finished. 

I only had grey tape to reinforce the button band, but it does the job quite nicely, and can only be seen on the inside.

Finished

 I have finished my 'Lovely in Lace Stitch' jumper from the 1930s. 

On the needles...

Well with a new wool delivery comes the overwhelming urge to start a new project. 

This one is  from the 1940s and is called 'Fifth Avenue'. It is aimed at 'the young matron' ('matron' being an unintentional insult for, in this case, anybody with a chest size over 38") and can be found here on the Subversive Femme blog.

Like so many other retro knitters, she is so generous with her time and resources and she has a huge collection of larger size patterns. 

I could, and regularly do, spend hours there, fantasising about my next project.  You really should check her out.

Here we are now ...

 I learnt to knit as a tiny child, nearly 50 years ago. 

I was the 80s goth who knitted her own skirts and jumpers (and black fingerless gloves). Yes, I actually did do it before it was cool.

But then I had babies and somehow fell out of love with it, as my babies grew up. Suddenly hand knits were not as cool to my four sulky teenagers as they had been to the shiny eyed toddlers who loved the ducky buttons. 

I know, we've all been there.

I grew disillusioned with patterns consisting of acres of soul. destroying stocking stitch, which seemed so pointless when we can buy a plain sweater for a fraction of the price of the wool. As the craft grew in popularity, every new pattern seemed to be a hat or gloves or (God forbid) a shawl (who actually wears those things anyway?)

I missed the challenge of lace and pattern. More importantly, I wanted a REASON to knit again.